Scott Heins/Getty Images(DELAWARE) — (NOTE CONTENT) At a hearing in a Delaware court Monday, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Mary Walrath approved a $17 million settlement plan resolving most of the sexual harassment and assault claims against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that the settlement had been approved by nearly 40 women pursuing such claims against the producer; the money allotted will be divided using a point system by a claims examiner.
The settlement also includes an additional $8.4 million to help settle other bankruptcy claims against Weinstein related to his former business dealings.
According to the trade, the examiner will review each victim’s claim, then determine how much of that $17 million pot each victim will receive. If the victims agree to release Weinstein from future claims, they’ll get what the examiner determines to be each victim’s full share; those who don’t agree they won’t pursue future legal action against the former movie mogul will only receive 25% of their share.
The settlement also grants a “mandatory perpetual release” of claims against Weinstein’s former clients and board members of The Weinstein Company, including his producer brother Bob Weinstein.
Weinstein was fired from the Weinstein Company, the production company he co-founded with his brother, days after the initial reports of sexual assault against him surfaced in 2017.
Last year, Weinstein was sentenced in New York to 20 years for criminal sexual assault for forcing oral sex on a woman. That sentence was ordered to run consecutively with a three-year sentence for the third-degree rape of another woman.
Weinstein also faces an additional 11 sexual assault counts involving five women in California, which could add an additional 140 years to life in state prison, on top of his 23-year sentence.
He remains behind bars at the Wende Correctional Facility in Erie County, New York.
By Stephen Iervolino
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